The Dodgers' Matt Kemp steals second base as Ryan Flaherty of the Baltimore Orioles covers on the play in the first inning on Saturday in Baltimore, Md. Rob Carr, Getty Images

BALTIMORE – In the midst of a miserable start this season, Luis Cruz has had more to worry about than his batting average.

Weighing on his mind at the same time has been his father's health.

"I don't want to blame that," the Dodgers infielder said of linking his slump with concern for his father in Mexico City. "It was tough. But I don't want to blame that. I don't want to make excuses. The last few days, I'm feeling better. I'm seeing more pitches. I'm taking the ball through the middle. That's where I had my success last year, just thinking about going through the middle."

That philosophy, no doubt, came from his father, a hitting coach who played professionally for years in Mexico.

But Cruz was startled to see his father when he visited the Dodgers' spring training camp in late March. According to the son, Luis Alfonso Cruz had lost nearly 40 pounds in less than two months. The family feared he had a serious illness.

"I left for spring training on Jan. 10 then I didn't see him until March 27," Luis Cruz said. "When I saw him, I was like, 'Oh, wow. Oh my God.'

"He's only 51. But he looked so old."

Cruz's father traveled to Los Angeles for some tests to find out what was causing the rapid weight loss. Doctors were able to eliminate some possibilities and trace the problem to an ulcer that had become infected. He has been placed on medication and returned to Mexico last week with plans to return for follow-up examinations.

For Luis, it was a load off his mind to know his father's problems were treatable. But Cruz has yet to find the cure for his own problems. He was 0 for 6 in Saturday's doubleheader, getting just one ball out of the infield (a routine fly ball to center field). That dropped his average for the season to an unsightly .085 (4 for 46) with no extra-base hits.

Cruz insists he sees positive signs recently that things will turn around soon.

"The first two weeks, I wasn't seeing the ball," Cruz said. "I was going up there with no plan. You know how it is – you go up there with a runner on third, you know what you need to do in that situation, what pitch you want to hit. I was going up there, making an out and – what just happened?

"Obviously, you have so many things in your mind – maybe that (his father's illness) affected me."

There could also be a good deal of course correction involved in Cruz's poor start.

Inside his .297 breakthrough over 78 games with the Dodgers last season was an unsustainable .320 batting average on balls in play. Those hits have been replaced with pop outs this season – a seemingly relentless string of them and usually within the first couple pitches of the at-bat. The overly aggressive Cruz is barely averaging three pitches per at-bat.

Of all the soft spots in the Dodgers' lineup (and there are plenty), Dodgers manager Don Mattingly admits Cruz's start is worrisome – even as the manager praises him for contributing with steady defense at third base and shortstop. Mattingly dropped Cruz to ninth in the batting order for the second game Saturday, this for a hitter who was penciled in to bat fifth or sixth and (hopefully) pick up some of the offensive slack with Hanley Ramirez on the DL.

"He's a concern," Mattingly said earlier this week. "Luis is a little more of a concern than Matt (Kemp, batting .206 through Saturday) because he doesn't have the same track record as Matt. The fly balls tell me a story and there's so many of them it's not a good story."

NOTES

Minor-league outfielder Yasiel Puig suffered a sprained left thumb and was placed on the seven-day DL by Double-A Chattanooga on Saturday. Puig suffered the injury diving for a ball in the outfield Thursday. He was batting .333 (16 for 48) with three doubles, a triple, three home runs and nine RBI in 13 games for the Lookouts before the injury. ... Andre Ethier's three-run home run in the first inning of Saturday's first game landed on Eutaw Street, the pedestrian boulevard in front of the iconic warehouse beyond right field at Camden Yards. It was the 67th HR to land there since the ballpark opened in 1989, the 39th by an opposing player.

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